Euan McColm: Peter Murrell scandal shows how standards in public life under the SNP are at an all-time low

This red herring, created by John Swinney a quarter of a century ago, feeds the separatists’ need for grievance while framing scepticism about the SNP’s mission as fundamentally unpatriotic. To suggest independence might not be in the national interest is to talk Scotland down.

As the fallout from Peter Murrell scandal continues to engulf the First Minister, the SNP’s line begins to sound less like an accusation and more like a confession.

After 19 years of SNP rule, Scotland has never felt smaller, poorer, or more mortifyingly stupid.

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A stitch up between Swinney and the Greens to block an inquiry into how Murrell, the estranged husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, was able to embezzle hundreds of thousands of pounds while he was SNP chief executive marks a new low for Holyrood. This is cronyism on a different level.

Swinney’s position that the Murrell scandal and the questions it throws up are matters for his party, alone, is not credible. There are serious questions for the First Minister to answer about the integrity of a party which urges Scots to trust it to establish a new, independent nation.

It’s reasonable for voters to want to know what John Swinney was playing at when he appeared on television five years ago to insist there were no problems with the SNP’s finances, even as Murrell was going full Elton John with the party’s credit card.

Were it the case that this scandal involved only the £400,000-plus to which, three weeks ago, Murrell pleaded guilty to stealing then, perhaps, the First Minister could weather the storm. His claim that this entire mess was down to the criminal actions of Penfold-gone-rogue might just about work.

But Murrell’s guilty plea doesn’t explain away the fact the SNP spent more than £600,000 – solicited in donations by Nicola Sturgeon and other senior party figures – on day-to-day expenses, despite promising this money would be ring-fenced and used only to fund a second referendum campaign.

John Swinney’s defence, that this money was spent on SNP “objectives” is pathetic.

It says something bleak indeed about the state of Scotland that the party of government can solicit donations on the basis they’ll be ring-fenced for one purpose then use them for another and this is not considered a matter worthy of serious criminal investigation. In business, this kind of thing ends up with board members in the dock.

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Murrell’s guilty plea to embezzlement does not tie up this scandalous loose end but, of course, it’s entirely – infuriatingly – pointless to expect any kind of accountability for that outrage in the SNP’s increasingly corrupt Scotland.

The SNP displaced Labour as the dominant party in Scotland two decades ago by promising a new, more honest politics. The Nats’ crusade was a moral one against an out-of-touch establishment where cronyism had trampled the principles of openness and integrity into the dirt.

A vote for the SNP was not, said the late Alex Salmond, a vote for independence, it was a vote for a better politics.

The reality is that two decades of nationalist government have seen standards in public life reach an all-time low.

Swinney and the man who once described him as his “work Dad”, Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer, colluded last week to block an inquiry into the Murrell scandal solely to protect the First Minister.

John Swinney should have nothing to fear from an inquiry – parliamentary or otherwise – into how Murrell was able to get away with his crimes for so long. Indeed, a confident leader would not only have welcomed an investigation, he’d have commissioned one.

As a tiny clique prevents a necessary inquiry into the biggest political scandal of the devolution era, Scotland feels pitifully small.

The SNP’s instinct to stitch-up has served it extremely well since it came to power in 2007. The party has used its parliamentary might to dominate and neuter Holyrood’s committees which, rather than scrutinising and interrogating legislation, are more often concerned with protecting and promoting the government’s positions.

The quality of the SNP cabinet has diminished considerably, over time. One need not have agreed with his objectives to have recognised Alex Salmond as a politician of substance. Although his personal record is tarnished, his political one is notable.

Now, a mediocre cabinet represents the curdled cream of an SNP group so drab that you’d struggle to pick a handful you might trust to successfully manage a suburban Tesco Metro.

Beyond the Scottish Parliament, the third sector – all those organisations whose purpose is to catch what the public safety net misses – is stuffed with SNP cronies, often more concerned with supporting Scottish government positions than concentrating on their declared missions.

Right now – free, thanks to a gap in the law that must be blocked, from any obligations under the Freedom of Information Act – SNP cronies and party hacks are running publicly funded organisations which exist to do little more than support the Scottish government.

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The erasure of democratic scrutiny under the SNP has reached the point at which even the most loyal nationalist must surely be wondering whether they’ve backed the wrong horse.

Those harbouring doubts about the integrity of the independence movement to which they belong might ask themselves two simple questions this weekend:

What good reason can John Swinney, who hired Peter Murrell as SNP chief executive, have for rejecting an inquiry?

What good reason can Ross Greer, who praised Peter Murrell for helping him secure a pay rise while he worked for Yes Scotland, have for rejecting an inquiry?

For everyone else, another question: How much smaller, poorer, and stupider does Scotland have to get before the SNP’s house of cards collapses?